Bombardment

[Sabre21]

Is there some odd reason why some task forces with the bombardment mission don't carry it out?

I'm playing the Guadalcanal scenario as the Japanese and noticed on a few occasions where bombardment TF's don't carry out that mission.

In one case I had a surface task force that I broke up into 3 bombardment tf's with the mission to bombard at Lunga/Henderson. I was north of Guadalcanal about 8 hexes and used waypoints to move them into the Tulagi hex then to Lunga rather than the defaulted path of moving around Tulagi to the south and approaching Guadalcanal thru the deep water. I knew that distance was too far for a single move.

Unfortunately all 3 TF's stopped in Tulagi and were there at daybreak. Then the next day, they moved into the Lunga hex, did not do any night bombardment and stayed there come the day phase. Retirement was allowed on all 3 TF's, all of the ships had a full ammo load and had plenty of fuel, none were damaged, all TF's were set on mission speed with the slowest ship being 25 knots, and no operational points had been used. I also had these set to return on the same path they took in.

So I did some experimentation with this. I moved the 3 bombardment TF's to a different hex but still 8 hexes from Lunga. I let 2 of the TF's use the defaulted path going south of Tulagi. The 3rd TF I used waypoints to go around the north edge of Tulagi into the shallow water and then hit Lunga. This time the TF using the waypoints stopped at Tulagi while the other 2 bombarded Lunga at night and were 7 or 8 hexes north come daylight.

I ran another test where all 3 used waypoints. 1 went the Tulagi route, one went south using the deep water route and the 3rd used waypoints with one on the shallow water atoll hex just south of Tulagi and then to Lunga. In this case again the Tulagi route stopped while the other 2 bombarded and moved on, although the one that went thru the shallow atoll hex moved 1 hex less when it moved away come daytime.

My last test totally thru everything out the window when I put the fastest ships in the north Tulagi route with waypoints and the others in the southern deep water route and no waypoints. This time all 3 TF's bombarded at night and were long gone come daylight.

So I thought I had it figured out until that last test. Is there any known issue out there with using waypoints next to each other or next to the objective hex that may cause a TF from doing a bombarding mission? Or possibly going thru an enemy base as was the case of the north Tulagi route? Any ideas or insight will be appreciated. A friend and I are hoping to start a campaign game soon and want to work out kinks that might cause undo grief later on.

[Oberst_Klink]

Make sure they take the direct route and with full-speed ahead. Base them in Shortlands; make sure there's fuel, supply and build this base out with as many engineers you got. Unless you manage to reinforce the remnants of the IJN in the North of Guadalcanal I'd suggest Milne Bay as target and P-M.

Klink, Oberst

[Sabre21]

ORIGINAL: Oberst_Klink

Make sure they take the direct route and with full-speed ahead. Base them in Shortlands; make sure there's fuel, supply and build this base out with as many engineers you got. Unless you manage to reinforce the remnants of the IJN in the North of Guadalcanal I'd suggest Milne Bay as target and P-M.

Klink, Oberst

Thanks for the super quick response. I used direct routing on one of the TF's, but it went off elsewhere and never moved much at all so I didn't try that option again. I can see using Shortlands would be one choice to use but a bit predictable. I had several units of engineers there with over 5000 supply and after a month had achieved only 15% on the airfield. I guess in that scenario I could have put more there.

Oh..I did try the Full speed on the first run. I didn't see any difference between full and mission speeds. Are there supposed to be?

Thanks again Wilhelm....lol...taking advice from Colonel Klink, I can guess what Schultz would say

[Gaspote]

Depending of what happen, sometimes if TF can reach the target at night only with full speed and you set her in mission speed. Instead of going at full speed to reach the target, the TF don't reach the target during the night and just advance to be really close for the next day.

I know making a lot of naval bombardment that full speed and no waypoint will always work for night bombing. Then cruise speed with waypoint will always work for day bombing. Although depending of the range but considering you are at one full speed move range of you r target. Mission speed is too hazardous and I only use it for move.

[jcjordan]

I've noticed that threat tolerance is playing a bigger role in beta versions that in earlier versions for pathing as well as whether it strikes at all. Try to see if it improves w/ direct pathing & absolute threat tolerance

[Oberst_Klink]

ORIGINAL: jcjordan

I've noticed that threat tolerance is playing a bigger role in beta versions that in earlier versions for pathing as well as whether it strikes at all. Try to see if it improves w/ direct pathing & absolute threat tolerance

Aye, but that can be changed in the router-planner and with the help of an aggressive TF skipper the IJN should carry out the missions, like they did historically and fatally. Best bet is to run test in the Coral Sea '42 sandbox scenario.

Klink, Oberst

[Barb]

Do not use Waypoint system for Hit-and run - game engine tends to move to the first waypoint and wait till the end of the movement phase there, move to the next on the next movement phase, etc... Thus if even if your Task Force is 8 hexes distance, it cannot make the whole move to target in a single phase ... as you are moving IN in the night movement phase and OUT in the daylight movement phase... [;)]

[Sabre21]

ORIGINAL: Barb

Do not use Waypoint system for Hit-and run - game engine tends to move to the first waypoint and wait till the end of the movement phase there, move to the next on the next movement phase, etc... Thus if even if your Task Force is 8 hexes distance, it cannot make the whole move to target in a single phase ... as you are moving IN in the night movement phase and OUT in the daylight movement phase... [;)]

Yea..I'm finding out that what you say happens quite often. Thanks